Day: May 15, 2012

A medical report compiled by the family physician of accused Trayvon Martin murderer George Zimmerman and obtained exclusively by ABC News found that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a “closed fracture” of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury the day after he fatally shot Martin during an alleged altercation.

[…]

The morning after the shooting, on Feb. 27, Zimmerman sought treatment at the offices of a general physician at a family practice near Sanford, Fla. The doctor notes Zimmerman sought an appointment to get legal clearance to return to work.

The record shows that Zimmerman also suffered bruising in the upper lip and cheek and lower back pain. The two lacerations on the back of his head, one of them nearly an inch long, the other about a quarter-inch long, were first revealed in photos obtained exclusively by ABC News last month.

But the report also shows Zimmerman declined hospitalization the night of the shooting, and then declined the advice of his doctor to make a follow-up appointment with an ear nose and throat doctor.

SANFORD, Fla. — WFTV has confirmed that autopsy results show 17-year-old Trayvon Martin had injuries to his knuckles when he died.

The information could support George Zimmerman’s claim that Martin beat him up before Zimmerman shot and killed him.

The autopsy results come as Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara continues to go over other evidence in the case.

O’Mara wouldn’t comment on the autopsy evidence, but WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said it’s better for the defense than it is for the prosecution.

WFTV has learned that the medical examiner found two injuries on Martin’s body: The fatal gunshot wound and broken skin on his knuckles.

When you compare Trayvon’s non-fatal injury with Zimmerman’s bloody head wounds, the autopsy evidence is better for the defense, Sheaffer said.

“It goes along with Zimmerman’s story that he acted in self-defense, because he was getting beaten up by Trayvon Martin,” Sheaffer said.

The injury to Martin’s knuckle also fits with Zimmerman’s story that before he shot and killed Martin, Martin had broken his nose and knocked him to the ground, slamming his head on the sidewalk.

But Sheaffer said there could be another explanation for Martin’s knuckle injury.

“It could be consistent with Trayvon either trying to get away or defend himself,” Sheaffer said.

As I wrote on Twitter just a few minutes ago, the release of this documentation/evidence does make you wonder all the more at what led the prosecutor to think she had enough to even try George Zimmerman at all, much less for second degree murder. We will, of course, find out at trial – but what we know so far about this case tends to favor Zimmerman’s account of events.

In related news, WFTV also reports that the FBI is busy conducting interviews with witnesses in order to determine whether or not to seek hate crime charges against Zimmerman, which could possibly see him face the death penalty:

SANFORD, Fla. — WFTV has learned charges against George Zimmerman could be getting more serious.

State prosecutors said Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, profiled and stalked 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before killing him, so the FBI is now looking into charging him with a hate crime.

Zimmerman admitted to killing Martin in February during a confrontation. However, he claims the shooting was in self-defense. He’s facing a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But if Zimmerman is charged and found guilty of a federal hate crime involving murder, he could face the death penalty.

FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge.

[…]

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said federal prosecutors would have to prove the hate crime to charge Zimmerman, though.

“What the government would have to prove is that Mr. Zimmerman acted out of hatred toward African-Americans. That’s why he came into contact with him. That’s why he shot and killed him,” Sheaffer said.

I have followed this case extensively and I just do not see hate crime charges being leveled against Zimmerman. Not even the prosecution alleges that Zimmerman said “f*cking c**ns” on the now-infamous 911 call. And given Zimmerman’s family’s mixed-race make-up, not to mention the back story on the crime problems that plagued his community months before that deadly night in February – which indicate reasons why Zimmerman would be suspicious of someone he didn’t know in the neighborhood – nothing so far points to a person full of rage specifically due to someone’s race.

We’ll know more in the weeks and months to come, to be sure, but for now I remain convinced that Zimmerman acted in self defense on that February night.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Some Democrats are worried that the state party’s inability to rid itself of embattled chairman David Parker could hurt their candidates’ chances this fall.

At a chaotic six-hour meeting Saturday [on Saturday], Parker offered his resignation, then reversed himself when the state executive committee voted 269-203 to reject it.

A smiling Parker returned to the stage to thank the SEC for its support. “My friends, I resigned this morning but I abide by the will of the state executive committee,” Parker said.

Supporters said Parker was the victim of a conspiracy by elected officials. Some said the conspiracy had to do with how party funding is divided. Others said Parker was scapegoated because the same-sex harassment scandal that happened under his leadership came to light just three weeks before a ballot initiative to ban same-sex unions.

Parker said he was pressured by elected leaders to refuse to serve.

“I will tell you there’s been a lot of phone calls made. But this is our party,” Parker said.

His decision humiliated those who publicly called for his resignation – especially the party’s gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton, who announced at that meeting that Parker WOULD step aside.

“As you know David is resigning as the chair of the party,” Dalton told the committee in his opening remarks Saturday morning. “And he says he is committed – he’s indicated he’s committed to a smooth transition. I want you to know that this is a very selfless act.”

In a statement Saturday evening, Dalton spokesman Schorr Johnson said the Lieutenant Governor was “surprised and disappointed” by Parker’s move.

“David Parker had assured him that he would resign and assist in the smooth transition to a new chair. Clearly that did not happen,” Johnson said.

A statement Monday from the Dalton campaign softened the message, calling the flap a distraction.

Yet the party’s sexual harassment scandal, and Parker’s self-centered decision to stay on as party chairman despite his role in it, are embarrassing the Democrats and threaten to hurt the very candidates Parker is supposed to help elect. By putting himself first and his party second, Parker thumbs his nose at his party’s top elected officials toward no good end.

It could cost the party a huge amount of money, and Democratic candidates thousands of votes.

It would have been the right thing to do. The party’s executive director, Jay Parmley, resigned last month after details about sexual harassment allegations against him became public. A male staffer accused Parmley of a number of inappropriate advances, and was later fired. Parmley and Parker authorized paying the staffer a secret settlement and had him sign a non-disclosure agreement, while Parmley kept his job.

Parker hardly seemed bothered by the whole affair. “I honestly believe that this is and was a tempest in a teapot,” Parker said, according to WRAL.

Any party has problems when led by someone who thinks sexual harassment allegations, and the firing of the person who makes them, is no big deal. When that chairman goes back on his word after promising to resign, he breeds distrust within the party.

The upshot: Parker’s actions imperil the considerable national dollars that typically flow through the N.C. Democratic Party from the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and organizations devoted to President Obama’s reelection. The governors’ group, wary of the split within the party, might direct its money to some of the 11 other states with gubernatorial races this year. Obama’s campaign might put more resources elsewhere, or control them more closely in a way that hurts candidates down the ballot.

*WRAL link added by me.

Keep in mind that President Obama won this state by only 14,000 votes in 2008 – his smallest margin of victory on election night, and it might have been even less than that if we didn’t have a Libertarian candidate on the ballot at the time. And it looks as though the Presidential race here will be competitive again this year. Team Obama knows they need every single vote they can get, and “distractions” like Parker’s resignation and then “unresignation” can hurt in-state fundraising efforts as well as the money coming in from national Democrat groups, which ultimately hurts “down-ticket” candidates – as noted in the Observer’s editorial. Also, even though the black vote in this state will once again be a lock for the President in spite of his “evolution” on Amendment One, if even 2 or 3 percent of the black voters who voted for him in 2008 stay home this year in protest over A1 it could hurt him significantly. Keep in mind, too, that the decision to hold their national convention here has become a giant headache for national Democrats:

President Barack Obama’s decision in February 2011 to hold the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina looked like a bold move to reclaim a state he’d won in 2008. Today, it’s more like an awkward fit.

The state’s Democratic Party is mired in a sexual harassment scandal. Voters just approved a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which conflicts with Obama’s view on the issue. Convention fundraising has been slow, and labor unions tapped to fill the financial gap are angry the convention will be in a city — Charlotte — with no unionized hotels and in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of dues is prohibited as an employment condition.

North Carolina’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate is above the national average and one of the host city’s top employers –Bank of America (BAC) — has announced job reductions. Obama is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at Bank of America Stadium in September.

[…]

Convention planners are expecting to receive, at most, $4 million from unions this year, less than half of the $8 million contributed by organized labor in 2008, according to a person familiar with the funding strategy who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about fundraising. The number could eventually be less than $1 million and the Charlotte host committee, the main vehicle for funding the convention, is still short more than $20 million, the person said.

Obama’s campaign is working to connect Jim Rogers, the host committee co-chairman and chief executive officer of Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), with Obama’s wealthiest supporters. Rogers has accompanied Obama on his last two $35,800-per-person fundraisers in New York City, most recently last night at the home of Tony James, the president of Blackstone Group LP, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

The Democrat party has their work cut out for them here in NC. It is incumbent upon all of us who want to see this President and his party lose big this fall to do our part in making sure the jobs of Democrat party movers and shakers at both at the state and national levels get a lot harder from now until election time — and beyond.

President Obama has inserted his name into every official White House website presidential biography since Calvin Coolidge (save Gerald Ford). Here are some examples via Commentary:

• On Feb. 22, 1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.

• In a 1946 letter to the National Urban League, President Truman wrote that the government has “an obligation to see that the civil rights of every citizen are fully and equally protected.” He ended racial segregation in civil service and the armed forces in 1948. Today the Obama administration continues to strive toward upholding the civil rights of its citizens, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, allowing people of all sexual orientations to serve openly in our armed forces.

• President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare signed (sic) into law in 1965—providing millions of elderly healthcare stability. President Obama’s historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the “donut hole.”

I find this very creepy. But I wonder why he’s stopping there? Sure the Obama folks can hie themselves to Wikipedia and get to work on the biographies of leaders going back centuries. After all, Joe Biden says Obama is the most audacious military leader in 500 years, or something like that.

I can’t get to the WH website just now to read some of the other bios, but I’m thankful at least they didn’t carry this all the way back to Lincoln. That one likely would have made me hurl more than any of the others.

Really. There is nothing this man and this administration will not do to attempt to artificially elevate his Presidential legacy. Nothing.